i have been training...n im not really moanin bout 7km..that'll be ok...im moaning bout emit..n i do plan on delaing with it....but i've never used it b4...so im gonna probs end up messin up....ah well
n stop bein nasty mharky..i was only saying

Assume G taht you've never had a SI unit fail? It seems to happen with regretable regularity. However, since BAOC reintroduced Emit a few years ago there have been no problems with units failing, as the electronics are different. Give it a chance. Having always moaned about it myself once I started to use it more frequently I found out it was a better system. Equally its much easier when charging into the finish, as no doubt you do, to register an Emit brick than slow down to nsure your SI SI Card has gone in a tiny hole!

EMIT is used in the south largely by clubs who hire in the BAOC team to run the system for them - and because they are familiar with the system and use it virtually every week for the Army's own events, it runs very smoothly.

The SI system is equally reliable if used with the same amount of care. SI systems usually run into trouble, if they do, because of human error,often because the clubs using SI borrow the kit from another club and are not using it often enough to keep familiarity with its little ways.

The usual reason for an SI box to fail is because its battery is running down. If clubs ruthlessly replace the batteries when they get to the 70% used level, failures are pretty rare. The temptation is always to try to squeeze one more event out of them.

I'm really looking forward to the mass start. Varying event formats can help to keep things interesting. Intense head-to-head competition (at least for the first couple of controls, before I get left behind by everybody!). Maybe mass start is more suited to a short race though.